Tuesday is new release day so who are we to mess with that?

Our latest no-budget epic has arrived. We do hope you’ll head over and check out the page for the film by clicking here. This really was a fun one for everyone involved.

We also have some photos from our premiere party for the film over at our facebook page so if you’re not a fan, join up now. Also, while you’re at it follow us on twitter. We posted a bunch of pictures during the shoot, which are also collected at our facebook page.

In the near future we will be adding more to the Dan vs. Earth page, like links to the music used in the film but for now we have a bigger version of the poster used to the left, the film (of course) and an outtakes reel we put together for the premiere. Altogether, 17 minutes of entertainment (not counting the time it takes you to look at the poster, which is as much as you want).

We had a ton of fun making it, we hope you have a ton of fun watching it.

I don’t know what else I can say that the above headline doesn’t convey so succinctly. Anypoop, the new film is done. It’s called Dan vs. Earth and it’s 11 minutes long. It should be going up on the site in the next week or so. We are screening it tomorrow in front of a small audience of friends then sometime in the next few days we’ll build the page for it and it’ll go live.

There is also a little outtakes film that we put together. It’s about 6 minutes and it’ll be going up around the same time.

So pretty soon you’ll have to clear 17 minutes from your schedule for some no budget tomfoolery. Plan accordingly.

Application: I believe this is the first prop covered here that is pan-genre in its application. I can’t think of a single genre that this wouldn’t be perfect for. Sci-fi? Uh, yeah. Romantic comedy? Duh! Horror? C’mon, you’re not even trying. Courtroom drama? Hmm… yeah, I’ll find a way to work it in. It’s a KATANA! Every movie needs katana (and a chef shirt).

Value: Ehh… I think I paid $25 for it which, to me, was a bargain-and-a-half (which I suppose would make the price I WOULD have paid somewhere around $58.00. I don’t know, you do the math). It’s not real sword metal (Steel? Iron? Dragon scales?) so I don’t think there is any actual melt-it-down value. I figure if I put it up for sale at a flea market I would probably get about what I paid. But, like the chef shirt, there are certain things in this prop department, nay, this WORLD that I cannot live without and a katana ANY katana is one of those things. I would say that if you do not already own a katana, it’s high time you went out and got yourself one.

Ninjas took over the office... I'm taking it BACK!

Previously… SI004 Sheriff Badge

Up next… SI.006 The Huge Diamond

History: As the Strange Ink Pictures Prop Master I have made significant contributions to the collection. In fact, one could go so far as to say that the Strange Ink Pictures Prop Department is merely the Dan Larson Prop Department with a different name. Of the 3 items I have catalogued so far in this series… all 3 of them are items that belonged to me personally. This item is no different.

I acquired this item in Colorado at Buckskin Joe’s Frontier Town and Railway which is kind of like a Renaissance Faire but with cowboys instead of knights (note to self: create Faire with cowboys AND knights)(Editor’s note: A Westernaissance Faire?). I figure purchasing this item in Colorado at a place like Buckskin Joe’s is about as authentic as I can get for an item like this. While it’s not a REAL Texas Ranger tin star it is a reproduction cast from a real one and it was sold to me by a man who pretends he’s a cowboy 5 days a week.

Application: This is another item in the library that doesn’t have too many uses. Sheriff, deputy sheriff… Renaissance Faire Sheriff. While it’s really only good for Sheriffs we could definitely cross genres with it. Nothing about it says that it can’t belong to a Space Sheriff or Pirate Sheriff.

Value: It was right around $25 or Twenty-five Bucks if you will, when I bought it. It’s not made out silver or anything, so inherently it has not increased in material value. To me personally, it’s one of my favorite possessions. While I have never been nor ever intend to be a Sheriff in the old west (or at a festival that recreates the old west) I’ve worn it as part of several Halloween costumes and display it proudly on a shelf next to my other prized possessions: a fossilized dinosaur tooth and a statue of Pedro Martinez.

Previously… SI.003 Evil Mask

Up next… SI.005 Katana

History: This is an item that was transferred from my personal collection to the Strange Ink Prop department. I picked this up a few years back at a renaissance festival, but you don’t have to suffer that kind of humiliation to get one of these. There are lots of places online that sell all different kinds of leather masks (regular or evil). Why did I buy an evil leather mask? Well, I can’t say for certain that it was evil when I purchased it. Perhaps it was the evil that drew me to it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a half full/half empty thing. Maybe it’s a good mask if you want to see it as a good mask. Maybe this is saying more about me than it was supposed to. Let’s move on…

Application: There’s really only two uses for this: superhero or fantasy flick. It’s either concealing a hero’s secret identity or outwardly expressing the twisted inner psyche of some dark sorcerer. Although, I suppose we could use it in a romantic comedy that has a Halloween party scene where someone dresses up as a superhero or a dark sorcerer. Now that I think of it, we could use it if we were going to make a movie about my English teacher from High School. It looks just. Like. Her.

Value: Tough call. I don’t have the receipt and it’s been a few years. A mask of this size goes for anywhere from $15.00 to $40.00. I didn’t have to pay extra for the evil, but I can’t guarantee that you won’t.

Is the evil in the mask... or the man?

Previously… SI.002 Mtv Microphone

Up next… SI.004 Sheriff Badge

Greg has assured me that we actually did get some quality stuff today (we never really know with our tiny little camera). There are some pictures on the tweetfeed (or whatever the kids call it)… but it’s probably going to be a week before we can return to shooting. Ultimately, I think this will be for the best as it gives more time to make some of the less conventional props.

If you’re interested, you can follow our progress throughout the day by following us on twitter: twitter.com/strangeink.

Thanks for stopping by…

History: This item has been in the Strange Ink Pictures Prop Department less than a year. I think I picked it up at a yard sale last summer. As I recall I had gone to the yard sale hoping to pick up some action figures and didn’t want to leave empty handed once I saw that some early bird had beaten me to the score. I definitely didn’t go there with the intent to buy it but once I saw it I figured we needed to have something in our prop department other than swords (we have a lot of swords) and Chef shirts (we only have 1 chef shirt as of this writing).

There’s no particular reason that we needed to have an Mtv microphone. I mean, it’s cool to have a microphone in our prop department, but it doesn’t have to be Mtv. I can’t imagine we’re ever going to put a film together that requires one of us to play ‘Downtown’ Julie Brown  (if we do, I think Bryan is the best fit… given how tall he is).

Application: The little box that says Mtv could easily be removed or covered to make this into a television reporter microphone or Presidential press corps microphone or we could even use it for what it was created for: karaoke. Or a movie about karaoke. If we do a movie about karaoke I think Bryan is the best lead… given how tall he is.

Value: The short answer is: $.50… ‘cause that’s what I paid for it. The stupid answer is $12.99 because that’s what people are apparently charging for this item on the ebay. If we lost this item tomorrow I don’t think Bryan and Greg would even notice. *I* might be a little disappointed, I could have spent that $.50 on candy and comic books.

Survive with the story. The world must know!

Previously… SI.001 Chef Shirt.

Up next… SI.003 Evil Mask.

Welcome to the first in a very, very long series of entries cataloging the inventory of the Strange Ink Pictures prop department. As Prop Master (and Props Master) I will be your host as we document the history, application and value of the multitude of items that fill the trunks and closets of our production warehouse (my basement).

Prop Catalog # SI.001 – Chef Shirt

History: This item came from my personal collection of… shirts. That sounds weird, though. I mean, I didn’t (and still don’t) COLLECT shirts, per se. I have shirts the same way anyone else has shirts, to decorate my torso. Why did I have a chef shirt? The same reason anyone else would have a chef shirt… because it’s awesome (a point debated regularly by the staff at Strange Ink Pictures).

I don’t remember exactly when and where I acquired this piece. Sometimes items come from flea markets, sometimes they come from old roommates who have abandoned their culinary school supplies… there’s just no way to track all of the items (until now). So far this piece has been in the prop department since Strange Ink Pictures’ inception almost 365 days ago.

As of this writing it has yet to be used in a Strange Ink Pictures production. It is important to note, however, that there are several scripts currently in development that this prop factors into prominently. (Editor’s note: No there isn’t.)

Application: Unlimited.

“But Dan, surely the only use is for a chef character” you might say. To which I would certainly reply: “No. That’s wrong.”

Time-traveling cowboy? Eccentric, retired Naval deep-sea diver? Undercover, geisha assassin? Wise-cracking robot puppet? Why do I have to do all the work around here? (This should help our Google search results).

Look, if science fiction has taught us anything about the future it’s that shirts will button up the side. How we transition from strictly culinary uniform usage to entire militaries and scientific explorers  hasn’t been covered just yet.

Value: Who can say? How much is Freddy Krueger’s glove worth? Herbie the Luvbug? Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber? These are all props that have transcended their physical characteristics. Their value is greater than the sum of their physical properties. This shirt hasn’t been used in a Strange Ink Pictures film yet, therefore, its value is limitless. What film WILL it be used in? How important will that film be and how important will this prop be to that film? These questions are unanswerable.

(What a chef might look like)

Up next… SI.002 Mtv Microphone

I don’t want to keep saying the same thing over and over again but here it is: It’s not the most ideal solution and we will be tinkering with it in the future but for now, we just wanted to get things moving in that direction.

It’s not everything we have available, only 3 per category, but it is, as the post is titled, the greatest hits both in terms of sales and personal taste. As always, you can find the whole store by clicking here.

If you do check it out, thanks from the past, which is when I wrote this.